The Sunflower of Life
by Awloxion
Summary: After years of trouble and pain, Lucas didn't know if he would be able to carry on in his life. He felt absolutely lost. He thought he was all alone in the world. Little did he know that these thoughts he had created triggered a huge changing point in his life...
1. Prologue

Normally, you would think that the start of stories would usually be nice and peaceful, right? Y'know, like the usual, stereotypical lives the main characters always have until something happens that changes everything for them. Yet they're still able to turn that around and return to their old lifestyle in the end. They were able to somehow overcome all obstacles that came in their way. That's how most stories should be like anyways. That's how the structure should be since thats what everybody can relate to in some sort of way, right?

Wrong.

Not everybody starts their life off in the best way possible. Some people have to start with the hardships in life. They have to deal with random things being thrown at them that can ruin their whole life, and somehow try and overcome it all. Some people dont even manage to get over it or get to the end of it in some cases. Stories that start with an image like this are usually more realistic, and better. Well, in my opinion at least. It brings up a pretty understandable moral, that not everybody is as lucky as other people are or are made up to be...

Well, that pretty much sums up my life story to be honest.

Dont get me wrong, I have had _some_ good moments in my life. But everytime I think everything is going well for a change, bad memories overshadow the good in my life. and by bad memories, I mean **bad** memories. not the kind that you could just shrug off without a thought. my problems are a bit more... _complex_.

You see, my family has had quite the disbanding, be it intentional or not. two of my family members had left us. One, being my twin brother named Claus, and the other being my mother... My brother had left due to an incident which occured with my mother. And she... Well, let's just say it's something like those old stories where a plumber would go off to save his princess from the clutches of an evil enemy, only to find out that his princess was in another castle. except, this 'princess' was nowhere to be seen and _won't_ be for a very long time...

I doubt she would wake up to see us, but there's always been that glimmer of hope inside of me that tells me theres a chance she could still be saved. But every year that comes by, every month. No.. every second of every day, I'd feel like that wish I'd always prayed for would not be possible. A few years later, I believed that there was no more hope left inside me to try and figure out a way to save my late mother.

But

All of that somehow changed, thanks the people I suppose I can call my only true friends as of yet.

I don't remember how I met all of them at the time. But what I do know is that they were able to make me feel like my life was just going to start getting better. Much better.

They somehow managed to raise my hopes up higher than they had ever been before. They made me feel like anything was possible if I just put my mind to it. And when I did.

That was when things really changed for me... who would have thought that your mind could be capable of doing such tremendous feats? Either way, my mind was able to assist me in my newfound idea.

My journey to find my brother and the sunflower of overflowing life.


	2. The Voice

Ah, the morning sun, a true sight to behold. It's amazing how the darkness instantly disappears and is then replaced with pure light, covering the whole area far and wide. It spreads positivity to everyone it reaches, especially to those in Tazmily, a small village that doesn't use any currency. It was a pretty quiet place, after all, there weren't that many people in the town to speak in the first place. But back to the sun. Yes. It lightens up your mood from the sight of it here in the morning.

But it also hits you like a truck when it does.

Lucas was stirring in his bed, about to wake up. He could hear the sound of the grass and the wind whistling together and heard the trees swaying from side to side. This lullaby put him at ease. It reminded him of something his mother would've done, if she was still her right now, that is. His scrunched up face began to soften, his frown becoming straight as the sound continued. After a few minutes of bliss, he knew he could stay sleeping for any longer and began to open his eyes. But as soon as he did, he regretted it instantly. The bright light was all he saw. He immediately winced and brought his hand from the cover of his bed and shielded his awakening eyes. The shadow of his hand hovering around his face

"Ugh" he groaned, slowly rolling to the edge of his bed until he hit his carpeted floor with a soft yet very audible thud. He fell flat onto the carpet but didn't move from that position for quite a while. Lucas' room was decently sized. He had a cupboard filled with many clothes including some hats and sunglasses for when it gets hot outside. He had a little table next to his two windows and on that table was a radio and a small diary which had Lucas' name plastered over it. His bed is at the side of his room and the windows were directly opposite. He also didn't have any curtains. So all he could really do was accept mother nature's wake-up call everyday. And that, was a downright pain.

After what felt like a really long time, Lucas finally mustered up the power to actually get up. He failed on his first two tries but eventually managed to nail it on the third. He rubbed his sore eyes with his arm and looked outside his window. There weren't many people outside that he could see, only some leaves falling from the nearby trees. He could also see some of the crops his father started growing to provide us with food. Lucas sighed. His father really worked hard to try and keep the family strong. But it was obvious that it was wearing him out. Pushing his thoughts away for a moment, Lucas averted his glance to his table. He slowly approached it and picked up the diary with his name on it. He thought back to when he had gotten this diary. It was a gift he was given for his birthday from someone close.

 **FLASHBACK**

"Happy birthday bro!" A boy said, grinning

"Happy birthday to you too, Claus" I replied imitating his smile.

"Oh yeah, we're twins aren't we?" We both laughed. He quickly stopped and looked behind me.

"Mom, can we go play together outside now?" He asked frantically, as if he had never seen the outside world before. I turned around and hummed as if I was asking the question to her as well. She turned around and greeted us with a warm smile, as well as making a gesture with her hands, indicating that she wanted us to come closer. We obliged. And as soon as we did, we were dragged into a group hug.

"Happy birthday you two," she said, while laughing softly. "You can both go outside once you've given each other your presents." We both cheered with happiness and continued to hug her. While we did so, we could smell the aroma of our favourite food coming from the kitchen, without any delay we both cheered again.

"Omelettes!"

While still clinging onto our mother's dress, we ran into the kitchen as fast as we possibly could and we saw our father at the stove, making our favourite meal. He turned around once we heard our jumping behind him. Once he saw us and our mother, he began to stifle a laugh.

"How many times have I told you not to run into the kitchen? You even managed to get your mum dizzy." After he said this, we both looked up to mom, only to see her eyes replaced with swirls and her breathing pattern becoming jagged. Claus was the first to respond after seeing this.

"Oops!" He said quickly. This caused our father to laugh and walk up to Hinawa.

"You doing alright in there, Hun?" he asked with a subtle grin. Not knowing what he said, Hinawa was only able to respond with an inaudible groan. With another quick laugh, Flint took hinawa by the hand and sat her down on a chair. Once she would in the chair, Flint looked at the two troublemakers.

"Ok you can give each other your presents now." And with that, we both went to our separate rooms to fetch our presents. When we both came back, Claus was the first person to show me his. It was a small diary which had a Franklin badge in the centre of it. It also had my name at the top. The book itself was blue and red, indicating the colour of clothes we wear, Claus wearing yellow and blue, while I wore yellow and blue.

"I want you to take this and write everything that happens to you in it, so in the future when we're together we can both remember the cool things that we've done together. I found the badge on the floor a few days ago while we were playing outside, so I thought it would be a nice present because I knew you liked having badges." He smiled at me and handed the book forward. I smiled in return. "Thank you Claus. I'll make sure I write in it for you." I put it behind me. My smile turned into a frown as I looked at what I had to give to him. What he gave to me was heartfelt and well thought out. All I did was go to a place in town and ask them for something that they were willing to give me. While I was lost in my thoughts, Claus had interrupted me.

"Ooh what's that? Is it for me?" And without any thought, he snatched my present for him out of hand. I looked for words to say to him, but before I could come up with anything, it was already too late. He had already torn the present wrapping apart and had seen what I had gotten for him. It was a small keychain in the shape of a star with a picture of me, dad, mom, and Claus in it, me and mom being on one side, and Claus and dad being on the other. In comparison to Claus' gift for me, mine had little to no background as to why I came up with it. Still without having a sentence to say, Claus was the first to speak again.

"Aww this is really cute! Thank you Lucas. I'll keep it forever." Once he said this, I was confused. Absolutely stumped. At a loss for words, I still managed to form a coherent sentence.

"Y-y-you really l-like it? After what you had given me?" He only replied with a swift nod.

"Anything you give me is a present, so I'll wear it and always cherish it." Without any idea of what to do, I embraced Claus, he too, embracing me. After our short hug, we parted.

"Now we can go and play outside!" He cheered. And he ran straight out to play with the animals near our house, which we call dragos. As I was about to leave, mom came out of the kitchen and said to me

"Go have fun Lucas.". I smiled and nodded frantically. And with that, I ran out to play with the dragos with Claus.

 **FLASHBACK END**

This was all years ago. Everything has changed since then. Lucas opened the diary and went to the day when Claus had left

'15 May 20XX

I don't know what's happened Claus left the house and said he wasn't coming back until he gets revenge on the people who did something to mom. but I don't know what he's talking about. Nobody has told me what happened. Mom isn't back either I'm really scared. Claus please come back. You said you wanted to be able to remember the things that happened in our lives. How will you be able to remember if you're not here to remember it with me? I really want you to come back. I love you Claus. Come back for me please. I want to help you. We're brothers and we stick together, right?'

...Right?'

Even if I didn't know what had happened to mom at the time, I wanted to help him. I loved Claus, and I still do, don't get me wrong. I would always try and protect him...

But he left me because he wanted to keep _me_ safe..

With a sigh, I closed my diary. I felt like some fresh air would help me find myself. So I began to leave the house. I walked out of my room and I stopped outside of my father's room, only to remember that he would normally have left the house at this time, trying to look for Claus or someone who knew of his whereabouts. So now would be the best time, if any, to go out to take a breather. I went outside, shut the door behind me, and began to make my way into the forest.

The forest wasn't very far from our home, it was only like a 5 minute walk. Lucas walked in to the forest, and to a sniff of the air as he did. He cringed and closed his eyes.

"Still smells like burnt ashes.." He said solemly. There was a fire here a long time ago. There were many injured civilians, but not a lot of casualties. This happened a few days prior to my mom disappearing. It was a shock to everyone when they found her missing. Everybody tried to find where she was. And when they did...

Lucas shook his head vigorously to forget about what he was thinking and continued to walk onwards. All he could see were trees and trees. A few moments later he questioned whether there actually was anything in the forest other than trees until he came across a small pond. Since he hadn't planned where he was going inside the forest, he chose to close in on the pond. As he got there, he looked as his reflection in the water.

"I wonder what mom and Claus would think of my now..." He thought aloud. Looking at his reflection made him think about how much he had changed from before, when they were all still together. At first he wouldn't be able to do anything without his brother or parents there with him, he was afraid of doing things by himself. Claus was always rowdy and would like to challenge things head on by himself if he could. In a way, they cancelled each other out. When he was loud, Lucas was quiet. When he acted brash, he acted calm. It was like that for a long time. And it all had changed once Claus left. When he was gone, Lucas was left alone. Claus wasn't there to say or do the things he normally would. Lucas was afraid without him. He had often tried to think of the things that Claus would do in situations which he wouldn't be able to compose himself to do. His dad knew how he felt and tried to console him, but it was never enough. Everybody around him was trying to make him feel better. But it just wasn't enough to shrug off his feelings. He was only thinking about his own feelings. Everybody else had their own individual problems that they had to handle. They might have even had problems bigger than his that I wouldn't understand. With a final sigh, Lucas asked his reflection one last question.

"Am I just a burden to everyone?"

 _Do you think of yourself as a burden?_

Immediately, Lucas jolted away from the water in complete shock, wondering where that voice came from. He looked around. Behind him, to the left of him, right of him, and centre. But, nothing. Confused, Lucas thought about shrugging it off.

 _Do you think you're useless?_

There it was. That voice again.

Awkwardly, Lucas chose to respond to the voice.

"I don't think I'm useless...?" He began to question himself. 'why am I talking to a mysterious voice?'

 _What do you wish for the most in your life?_

Lucas answered this question in a heartbeat, raising his head up as he did.

"I want to see my family happy. I want to live as a whole happy family again like I used to." Suddenly, he lowered his head down back to the water. "But.. My mothere's dead, and there's no way of bringing her back. So my wish... Can't ever come true..." Lucas sighed once again. "So much for that."

 _What if I told you there_ was _a way to bring your mother back to life?_

This statement brought Lucas' dull eyes back to life. A way to bring his mother to life. It sounded a little bit sketchy to him. ' _How could there possibly be a way to bring her back?_ ' He thought to himself. ' _This must be some sort of joke_ '

 _I assure you, I do not jest._

This shocked Lucas even more. This voice could read his mind. Knowing that something could read his mind made him feel very vulnerable. He tried his best not to think about anything stupid. Like the time when he went to a party without his left shoe. Or another time when he accidently rolled down a hill when he fell off of his bike with training wheels. Or that other time where he woke up late for a-

 _Ahem_

Suddenly Lucas' mind was put at ease

 _There is a place in the world which grows these types of revival flowers. They are called the flower of life. They are located in a flower garden and are very difficult to find. But I can assist you in finding them._

 _'But why do you want to help me? I don't even know who you are.. I don't even know **what** you are' _Lucas thought, confused.

 _I want to help you because I want to help you with your resolve. As for who I am, you will find out in due time. For now, I am just a voice in your head that will guide you on your journey._

' _So you're just my conscience?'_

 _In a way._

Lucas began to stand up away from the water. And look into the distance. There was a way he could revive his mother. Even though this possibility felt tiny, he still wanted to believe that there was a way to bring his family back together. It was is only dream. And it was a dream he wanted to bring to life.

' _So then,_ ' Lucas began. ' _Where do we start?_ '


End file.
